You can make white chocolate from scratch – at home, in your microwave, with no special tools (not even a candy thermometer).

You may think that making candy is completely out of your league. I assure you that making white chocolate is something you can definitely do and it will look like the white chocolate in my picture (or fancier if you use a different mold). Making white chocolate takes under five minutes of your time and, even if you don’t typically enjoy white chocolate, this homemade white chocolate might change your mind.

Most store-bought white chocolate is so sweet that the sugar and added vanilla flavor is pretty much all you taste. I’m not a fan. When you make your own white chocolate, the subtle chocolate flavor from the cocoa butter (the main ingredient in white chocolate) will come through along with whatever flavor(s) you choose to add. My homemade white chocolate shown above is made with ground ginger and orange extract for a more sophisticated, summery feel. You could make lemon white chocolate or cinnamon white chocolate or chili white chocolate or whatever combination your heart desires!

When I crave chocolate, I’m still going to reach for a quality piece of dark chocolate like Patric or Amano. But now that I know how easy white chocolate is to make and its wide range of flavor possibilities, I’ll be working white chocolate made from scratch into my recipes more often.

Cocoa Butter – The Key Ingredient In White Chocolate

To make white chocolate, you’ll need cocoa butter. Cocoa butter is the edible vegetable fat from the cocoa bean. If you’ve ever had really old chocolate sitting around your house and noticed that it started to get some white looking stuff on it, you’ve likely seen cocoa butter. In most instances, the white stuff is the cocoa butter separating from the chocolate.

Cocoa butter comes in a solid block that resembles a giant bar of soap. You you may be able to find cocoa butter in your local baking supply store or health food store, but if you can’t, you can always buy cocoa butter online. Some cocoa butter is sold specifically for use in cosmetics and may have ingredients mixed into it that aren’t meant to be eaten, so be sure to check the package before buying.

How To Make White Chocolate

Below, you’ll find my recipe for orange ginger white chocolate discs. I based it on the white chocolate recipe from Hannah at BitterSweet. I also include tips for creating your own flavors or for making a basic vanilla white chocolate.

UPDATE 12/1/15: Many readers have had problems with this recipe. Although it worked for me, it is definitely not guaranteed to work. Try it at your own risk. Troubleshooting this recipe is on my long to-do list and if I can figure out where the problem is, I will give another update and change the recipe where needed.

1/2 teaspoon orange extract (You can replace this orange extract with any flavored extract that you like. If you want a more traditional vanilla-flavored white chocolate, use more vanilla extract for a total of one teaspoon vanilla extract.)

3/4 teaspoon ground ginger (You can use any spices that you like or leave out the spices entirely for a more traditional white chocolate.)

Pinch of salt

Silicone molds (To make these white chocolate discs, I used a silicone cupcake tin but, you can use any silicone mold that you like.)

Instructions

Place cocoa butter in a microwave-safe bowl and melt in the microwave. If you are used to melting butter in the microwave, you'll be surprised at how much longer this process takes for cocoa butter. Set the microwave for two minutes and then add a minute at a time until the cocoa butter is completely liquefied.

Stir in the powdered sugar and the milk powder. Make sure that all of the sugar is completely dissolved in the cocoa butter.

Stir in the remaining ingredients.

Pour or spoon the mixture into your molds. If you are using a silicone cupcake tin, use approximately one tablespoon of the cocoa butter mixture per circle.

Refrigerate until cool.

Pop the white chocolates out of the molds and enjoy on the spot, use to decorate cupcakes or cakes, break into pieces and add to cookies, or use in any other way that you can dream up.

i just wanted to say that it was veary hard to make the sugar would not desolve in the mixture, it got very messy and sticky it took forever to clean up and it took soo long to make and when i ate it, it was so horrible.

i think making your own chocolate takes forever to make it causes usless mess and it is just easier to go out iand buy the chocolate and not make it.

i dont recomend making this. all the people that say that it is easy they are actual bakers they are professionals

We just made this last night when we made peppermint bark for chocolate. If you want to see it, we posted it on instagram @superfoodrunner. I used Navitas Naturals cacao butter, and I used powdered coconut milk which we were so excited to find!! I made 6 times the recipe as far as the cacao butter, BUT I thought that the sugar might be too much if I put in 2 cups so I only added in 5 portions of sugar and milk powder. We added peppermint extract, but I didn’t add any additional powders. I have never my ade white chocolate before although I have had great success making chocolates out of cacao products(paste, butter, powder). I find it to be really easy. I really liked this recipe,and my family thinks that it is better than Williams Sonama’s recipe. We posted the entire recipe with the chocolate ice cream we made in our instagram post.

Okay, I clicked on this post from FoodGawker with a really bad attitude and I was SURE this was going to be a BS post about candy melts or something awful. Thank you for blowing away my expectations. xoxo

That is so awesome! I really want to give this a try, my husband is a huge fan of white chocolate but so much of it is gross(to me at least and I’m not usually a while chocolate fan). I’m bookmarking this to try sometime :D

Love this. I am going to try using it to make decorations for my son’s cupcakes. Maybe “paint” a colored white chocolate decoration, put it in the bottom of the mold after freezing & then pour this over it to make a disc with a design! Thanks for sharing!

You can make this both fat-free or low-fat by making sure to use non-fat milk powder or low-fat soy milk powder (if you’re a vegan) and sugar-free by making a sugar free powdered sugar which is done by mixing 1 cup of splenda with 1 tsp. of cornstarch in a blender or food processor for about 1 minute

awesome post – I’v ALWAYS wanted 2 know how! i’ve been moulding & making all kinds of chocolates for 22yrs – I’ve even made an entire chess set, 1 side in dark chocolate filled with flowing peppermint & the other side with white choc swirled with milk choc so that a ‘wood-grain’effect was achieved in the moulds, & filled coffee flavour…It made a most impressive gift for my husband, but I’v always wanted to know how to make the actual chocolate MYSELF, SO THANK YOU 4 SHARING! I love your variations, too – My Mother adores ginger. Just 1 question: other recipies call 4 the addition of Lecithin…Why is this, & what’s your take on that. Thank You, Johnell.

I was really exited with this and gave it a try. But the butter did not emulsify at all with the rest of the ingredients when it was set. I tried to refrigerate but didn’t worked either. How can you make yours set beautifully without additional emulsifiers? Thanks

I am a chocolatier and i advise you that if you reheat it more than twice or thrice, the chocolate loses it’s flavours and it rids it’s locked in textures. Always check the dates on all cocoa butter that has been purchased. Caution: Do not mix in other raw ingredients with your fresh chocolate, it will go bad in a few days. The lifecycle of chocolate can be forever ‘if’ you preserve it in a monitored (tempurature controlled) fridge (not industrial). Do not freeze chocs for more than 9months as they will gradually break down. I hope all this information helps you guys, as it would be wise if you know now than later and end up spending twice as more money than what you bargained for.

I am trying to make chocolate and have managed to make the dark chocolate and am really struggling with the milk and white. As I am not a professional I am using cocoa powder. In white choc full fat milk powder and icing sugar obs all with cocoa butter and vanilla extract where needed. I am getting so stressed as the recipes are so easy but it always comes out so powdery. How can i stop this?

I have been looking for the way to make White Chocolate and this is the best one I have found. My problem is how do you make it like a syrup. I find it easier to use when it is soft I like using it to make my Moca Coffee. I used the Tyrani White Chocolate but can not find it in small bottles any more they only sale it in bulk 1 gallon or more for commercial use in the Coffee houses. It almost seems as though they have stopped Tyrani from making it so we consumers can not get it so easy. Sorry about the long post but Thanks for any help you can give. God Bless!

Any liquid poured directly in chocolate will cause it to seize and it becomes unusable then. That’s why pro chocolatiers never melt chocolate over hot water, any drop of liquid (be it water, milk or vanilla) will spoil your entire batch.
I would suggest vanilla paste or powder to flavour this chocolate.

Exposing the cocoa butter to even a drop of water can cause the cocoa butter to seize. Make sure you using completely dry mixing equipment (avoid wooden spoons, use plastic), not covering the hot cocoa butter or allowing contact with steam, are adding any liquid-containing ingredients at the correct time. Hope that helps.

Hi, Stef. First off I’d like to thank you for making this recipe–lately I’ve been really into making food from scratch, and this was just the thing I was looking for.

I have some questions about the powdered sugar, if you don’t mind. Is the 1/3 cup you use in the recipe packed? Also would you recommend sifting it before mixing it with the cocoa butter? When I made the chocolate, it seemed that the sugar resisted my every attempt to blend it. Do you have any recommendations for smoother mixing? Thanks.

tried this recipe out just to use the cocoa butter i had in the house and it became extremely gritty. i tried to melt the sugar in a saucepan but all the fat separated. this is a really, really bad recipe and i’m very surprised more people didn’t post about how bad it was.

i’m going to recover the cocoa butter by using paper towels and a strainer.

i just wanted to say that it was veary hard to make the sugar would not desolve in the mixture, it got very messy and sticky it took forever to clean up and it took soo long to make and when i ate it, it was so horrible.

i think making your own chocolate takes forever to make it causes usless mess and it is just easier to go out iand buy the chocolate and not make it.

i dont recomend making this. all the people that say that it is easy they are actual bakers they are professionals

I made vegan cookies & cream with this recipe for my friend who has a dairy allergy. I think the ratios are a bit off, the cocoa butter really took over and it was a bit soft. But it was very delicious! I added more salt, since salt + chocolate is magical.

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I just received my jar of organic, unrefined, cocoa butter in the mail yesterday. I wanted so much to make this recipe. I gave this recipe a try and I am a little confused as to why the recipe didn’t turn out white in the white chocolate sense seen in the photographs, but more of a dull yellow. Did I do something wrong?

The cocoa butter I purchased is pure, organic, unrefined with no additives so I would assume it is the edible kind. Would that have anything to do with it?

Mine was quite a bit whiter once hardened (in the fridge) than it was right after melting the ingredients together, but I would still say that it had a tiny bit of yellow tinge. The melted cocoa butter resembled melted (cow’s milk) butter, just a little lighter and a lot clearer. I just figure that’s the natural color of cocoa butter, lol; it seems like they would have to do something to it to make it totally white. Did you try the same brand she posted that she used? Maybe they clarify it in some way or something. I used Tisano brand, purchased on Amazon. Stef said she used Navitas Naturals (see above) – also available on Amazon (http://smile.amazon.com/Navitas-Naturals-Cacao-Butter-Pouches/dp/B002PAAWQU/ref=sr_1_10?s=grocery&ie=UTF8&qid=1413090990&sr=1-10&keywords=cocoa+butter). :)

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Just tried making this, but I think I “broke” it, lol. I don’t have a microwave, so I was using a double-boiler on pretty low heat (3 out of 10 on my stove setting). Everything was going along splendidly until I added the vanilla extract – it immediately appeared to “break” (separate into a white solid bottom and yellow clear top layer), just like an alfredo sauce my husband once tried to make with whipping cream instead of heavy cream, lol.

I’m wondering if the “vanilla extract” you used was some sort of oil-based – or at least oil-containing – “extract”? Mine is just vanilla beans split open and aged in alcohol (vodka). It seems possible that adding the non-oil liquid may have caused the separation. Interested to know what your vanilla extract looks like/is made of. :)

If it’s not the non-oil nature of the vanilla extract, I’m going to suspect that perhaps that last second or two on the heat was too much, and just take the top pot off the double boiler as soon as the cocoa butter melts (since you are pulling the container out of the microwave as soon as it melts, anyway). :) I know alfredo sauce (my only real reference for this sort of thing, if you can’t tell, lol) also breaks because of over heating (my husband has also caused it to break by trying to re-heat it in the oven for too long/too high, lol).

Thanks for responding! I tried it again, but this time I put the vanilla in the sugar before adding it to the melted cocoa – this seemed to solve the problem. :) I also took the cocoa off the heat (took the top off the double boiler) to add the sugar, but the sugar didn’t seem to be dissolving very well, so I put it back on on low. No breakage. :)
I added Wilton Candy (oil-based) Color and used it to make Lego bricks (with silicone molds) and to coat marshmallows (with slices of mini-marshmallows on top to look like Lego minifig heads) for my son’s birthday party. We have a good friend with dairy issues, so using this recipe with powdered soymilk was an awesome way to have real, delicious white chocolate that everyone could eat :). It was a little “grainier” than store-bought, but so, I realized, was my home-made icing – I think it’s the cost of having real, home-made food, rather than store-bought hydrogenated-oil based food, lol. Everything came out well and the kids loved it, and it tasted great.
Thanks again; for posting this recipe, and for responding to my comment!
~ Heather

If my powdered milk is super fine, as opposed to many dry milk products on the market that are almost granular, do I still measure it the same way? I’d like to increase your recipe considerably to make more white chocolate.

You should really change the recipe. This is too expensive to mess up on. Instead of vanilla extract, it should be vanilla paste or powder. Mine turned out to be a liquid mess and after reading other recipes found the problem. How did you get the extract to not seize your chocolate?

Hi, I was exited to try this recipe as I am dairy intolerant. I used soy powder milk instead. I left behind ginder as I don’t like spice in the chocolate. It was easy to make and it was hard and look like real nice one but it taste as greasy butter and no ttf himg else. Don’t understand how you can like such taste. It has nothing to do with store bought white chocolate.
Natalia

A suggestion could be the varying wattages in people’s microwaves. That may be where the problem lies. Also, try doing this in a double boiler to melt the ingredients instead of the microwave. Takes longer but usually keeps the ingredients from scorching.